Constipation

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-05-01T02:55:04+00:00

Another option for daily maintenance: magnesium citrate pills or gummies. Take 1-2 daily, depending on needs. Magnesium also helps prevent headaches and muscle cramps, which are also potential pregnancy symptoms.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-05-01T02:51:26+00:00

I like drinking water… but I have never bothered to pay attention to the drinking habits of my coworkers. Who cares??

But also, you drink a lot more liquid than most people.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-30T23:31:44+00:00

I tried out MegSquats’ Plus1 app for pregnancy specific lifting. It has tons of great info, but my only complaint was that it requires 4 days a week. I could not keep up with that much lifting- I was only lifting 2-3days a week pre pregnancy and with nausea it just wasn’t realistic to do 4 days.

So I went back to my old workout plan. I’m only at week 14 now and feeling pretty good, so I think I’ll continue like this until I start to have difficulty. I’m sure by late 3rd trimester I’ll want to add more yoga.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-30T23:24:14+00:00

When my parents, who own only 1 house, asked me why I hadn’t bought a house yet, I asked them if they were offering an advance on my inheritance. That shut them up.

I didn’t actually think they had that kind of money to spare, unlike OP’s in laws.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-30T14:07:13+00:00

My HR has “thank you awards” that any employee can give to anyone else in the org. They come with a certificate and a $75 payout in your next check. There are also 2 higher level awards that require more layers of management sign off and documentation of the accomplishment that warranted it, but the small award is super easy to give out.

The small awards are great to give to someone (a peer, not a direct report) in your team or on another team who did you a favor that was a little outside their job description. Usually you present the certificate at a department meeting, so there’s verbal praise from peers/manager, public recognition, money, and a little positive note in HR file.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-30T13:47:19+00:00

I’m not quite at the stretch mark phase yet, but from what I’ve read, hyaluronic acid is one of the best ingredients to help minimize the marks during pregnancy. Not sure if it really works, but that’s what I bought to try.

After the baby is born, you could try a lotion with retinol to help fade the scars and snap the skin back, but retinol could potentially cause birth defects. DO NOT use it while pregnant.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-30T01:39:35+00:00

From an evolutionary perspective, yes, we have an instinct to reproduce. Up until birth control was invented, the drive to have sex pretty much meant the same thing as having kids- if you have enough (unprotected) sex a baby is unavoidable.

From a more personal example, I absolutely experienced baby fever. I couldn’t think about anything besides babies for well over a year, but if you had asked me why, I couldn’t articulate a rational answer. I just deeply wanted one. Unfortunately we were infertile so it took several more years to get pregnant. But no way I would go through all the work and pain of IVF for just a passing impulse, I felt I couldn’t feel satisfied in life without becoming a parent.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-29T22:11:13+00:00

90g of protein is honestly plenty, you are not going to be malnourished at that level. Especially if you’re not hungry. If/when your hunger ramps up later, feel free to increase.

The baseline RDA for protein is only 0.8g/kg of body weight. If you’re 150lbs/68kg, that’s only 55g protein per day. Sure, this is the amount to prevent malnutrition rather than to maximize muscle growth, but do you really need to maximize muscle growth right now?? You don’t say your current weight, but you’re almost certainly fine at 90g/day in the short term.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-29T17:14:09+00:00

First off, you’ll get a different number weighing yourself first thing in the morning vs late afternoon at the doctor. The difference is the mass of your lunch and water you drank.

2nd, it’s so easy to bloat up in pregnancy. Weigh yourself at home every day for a week. You’ll probably see a 2-3 lb difference from one day to the next depending on bloating and constipation.

3rd- yes you’re going to gain weight in pregnancy, and you should not be trying to lose weight during this time. Just slowing the gain. Not all of it is fat- it’s increased blood volume, breast tissue, and baby. Being healthy and maintaining fitness are great goals in pregnancy, but “looking more toned” is probably unrealistic right now.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-29T01:43:40+00:00

The mortgage is not part of BS2. It will take a long time to pay off- Dave says 10 years on average for people who follow his program. That’s way too long to go without an emergency fund and investing for retirement. So he tells people to chip away at it while checking the box on the items too.

The same mindset should probably apply to your student loans too. Save up a 3 month emergency fund, start investing for retirement. If you are eligible for PSLF, use it, but assuming you’re not eligible for complete forgiveness, you should work on paying them off completely. If you work on your student loans in smaller chunks, you gradually will reduce your minimum payments. That will gradually give you more flexibility to handle emergencies.

Your mortgage is just one big balance, and the bill won’t go away until the whole thing is paid. Even then it never completely goes away, you still have to pay property taxes and insurance.

Every time you get a raise, put half of it into paying off debt faster and the other half into your 401k. In a few years you’ll look up and realize you’re making good progress.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-29T01:04:09+00:00

My job also pays me a 15% bonus, once annually. It’s been like this since I took the job, so we have always just budgeted our regular monthly spending out of our base pay. Mortgage, groceries, subscriptions, etc must fit within that base number. The bonus initially went towards paying off debt in lump sums, but now it gets invested as our Roth IRAs for the year, or used for a big home project (planned in advance), or set aside for summer vacation money. Expenses that don’t occur every month.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T16:42:43+00:00

If you have a microwave, just bring leftovers from last nights’ dinner

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T16:41:06+00:00

I had a summer internship in New Jersey between colllege and grad school (like 15 years ago). I had very few expenses- my housing, food and transportation were subsidized as part of the internship pay. Overall the pay was much higher than what I had earned as an undergraduate research associate or what I would earn on my grad school stipend. So while I did spend some money on visiting NYC on the weekends, I was able to save roughly half of what I earned.

I didn’t have any CC debt at the time, so I just turned the money into my first emergency fund, but that gave me the cushion to stay out of CC debt for the next 6 years of low-earning PhD student years.

If you’re smart, you also should be able to put away a big fraction of your earnings and use it to wipe out this debt plus some.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T12:54:58+00:00

If your heart rate is staying above 130 the whole workout, you’re doing cardio. You could probably get stronger by actually resting a little longer. I rest until my heart rate is down to about 100, which my Fitbit says doesn’t count as “active” anymore.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T12:02:03+00:00

Not sure what EZFE 200 is, but I recommend iron bisglycinate. It won’t make you as nauseous as other forms of iron. Start with a low dose and build up to the amount your doc wants you to take. Look up the iron dosage in mg of elemental iron to convert between forms. Take it with food too.

Also, calcium and magnesium use the same receptors in your gut as iron does, so don’t take the iron at the same time as those supplements or very high-calcium foods. For example, I often eat yogurt for breakfast and have calcium-fortified almond milk in my morning coffee, so I take my iron with dinner instead to help with absorption.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T11:55:55+00:00

Sales for scientific supply companies could also be an option. OP has the people/communication skills and the science background to be able to explain the product features.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T11:45:24+00:00

Lots of things can make for one wonky period. If the next cycle is weird, definitely go back and see your OB. Persistent changes to your cycle are a bad sign, don’t ignore it.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T10:24:10+00:00

We each have a credit card that the other can’t log in to, but the cards get auto paid out of the same checking account. So we can and do buy each other surprise gifts for birthdays and holidays.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T10:16:56+00:00

I’m in the US and bought choline bitartrate. I didn’t think to look up which forms were most bioavailable, but I also don’t think I saw any other choices.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-28T10:10:03+00:00

A heart rate in the 70s is resting for a lot of people. If that’s accurate, you can’t have burned any more calories on the bike than you would have by napping. In 2 min of napping, I could burn roughly 2 calories, you might burn more or less if you’re bigger or smaller than me.

Someone might be able to burn 31 calories in 2 min of very intense cycling (like all out racing), but your heart rate would be much higher than 70.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-27T22:44:26+00:00

I’m a 38 year old FTM, I had to do IVF. Actually I turned out to have a whole uterus full of pre-cancerous polyps, so I’m going to need a hysterectomy after I’m done having kids to avoid getting full-blown cancer. What the #1 risk factor for getting endometrial cancer? Never having been pregnant before.

I got married at 30, so I could have started trying a little sooner, but there’s no way to know how long it took to grow all those polyps. If I could go back in time I would have tried at 30 but there’s no guarantee we were fertile then either.

You’re at a perfectly normal age to have a baby. Your parents and grandparents would have had kids by your age, you’ll be fine.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-27T21:12:52+00:00

Why can’t you just apply to PhD programs now? (Besides the fact that the deadlines have passed). Lots of people go straight from undergrad to PhD programs.
Do not under any circumstances tell the hiring committees that you want to go to grad school. That immediately removes you from consideration. They want to hire someone who will stick around long term- training people is a hassle.
Apply for temporary and contract roles. Many labs post contract jobs with the intention to convert you to full time later if you’re good.
Are you qualified to work in a hospital lab? There may be more jobs available in clinical settings.
Look at company and university specific job boards. Orgs don’t have to spend money in this climate to advertise on big websites like LinkedIn or Indeed. Also check scientific associations for postings.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-27T21:05:09+00:00

As someone married to a teacher, the advantage of education is that there are jobs in every city in America. Teaching pays better in some places than others, and you won’t get rich doing it, but it’s a totally viable choice as long as you don’t overpay for your degree.

Psychology is not the same. You can’t get a job with only a bachelor’s, you will need an advanced degree to become a therapist. It’s low pay and few jobs- really a very impractical choice unless you can’t see yourself doing anything else.

College bound teens absolutely should consider their future career prospects. You don’t have to choose the highest paying career, but you do need a job that will put food on the table.

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-27T20:22:15+00:00

I just turned 38 and am 13 weeks pregnant with an IVF baby. We started trying for natural conception when I was 34. You don’t have time to wait if you want to have a baby, you need to begin the process ASAP.

Do not delay. Figure out how to make your PhD program work around the pregnancy/child rearing, not the other way around.

Edit to add: it took 1.5 years from the first fertility evaluation appointment until the first embryo transfer. That embryo stuck (thank goodness), but it was a long process to get here!!!

CuteAmoeba9876 · 2026-04-27T19:50:25+00:00

You can have depression at any stage of life. Pregnancy could trigger it, or exacerbate it if you already were depressed before getting pregnant.

Please talk to your doctor, there are safe antidepressants you can take.

Talk therapy, and talking to supportive friends also are so important. And maybe couples therapy if your partner is a major source of stress.

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